The flooding has taken a toll on many states, but especially Kentucky. In Louisville, rivers rose 5 feet higher than normal within a 24 hour period, and in Owensboro, a levee gave out, dumping water into fields. Dawson Springs city officials were even forced to cut power themselves because water levels rose so high they reached a substation, which is an electrical distribution system.
The Anderson County, Kentucky region suffered several feet of flooding itself and 7 inches of rain, forcing the residents to evacuate. However, dozens were left stranded, but local firefighters were able to rescue over 40 people. The state also marked an all-time record rainfall in a 4 day stretch, with 15.59 inches falling just north of Benton, Kentucky.
Flooding has not been the only concern; tornadoes have been one too. 93 were reported between April 2nd and 7th, and from March 27 to April 5, a tornado was reported every single day somewhere in the United States.
Not only have many areas been ruined by rising water levels, but countless homes have been destroyed by these tornadoes, too. One notable storm hit Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where one resident found his mobile home in complete ruins after a tree fell onto it.
The hardest hit areas were the towns of Hardy and Mammoth Springs in Arkansas, Dawson Springs and Frankfort in Kentucky, and Columbus, Indiana. Much of the flooding was due to the rising water levels of rivers from the torrential rain; the communities closest to The Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers suffered the worst.
Finally, on the night of April 7th, the storm moved past the continental US into the Atlantic Ocean and no longer posed a threat to communities across the Eastern US, but millions are still suffering from the flooding and damage. Some locals in Kentucky have “lost everything they’ve had,” and this was “one of those once-in-a-generation-type storms that you may never see again,” said Anderson County Assistant Fire Chief Chad Womack to NBC News.
On the morning of Monday, March 31, as flood levels rose, 9 million residents went under a flood watch across Alabama and Georgia.
On that same day, 19 river gauges at different locations experienced drastic rising water levels, and 40 more areas were forecasted to experience major flooding too.
While the South and East has been battered by rain and tornadoes, a new weather system began on the west coast, hitting the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest during the middle of the week of April 7, with rain in lower areas, and snow up in the mountains.
